Are You Paying More Money To Do More Work?

This Car Will Change Your Life

We've got a big problem.

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Have you ever been stuck in a downtown traffic jam on a rainy day? Those days are the worst. Cars stretched in front you as far as you can see, impatient drivers eagerly trying to cut ahead of you, and all the while you're thinking of that important meeting you are minutes away from being late to.

A solution is on its way.

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What if you no longer had to worry about the all the frustration and anxiousness that everyone else outside your car window had to deal with? The concept of a self-driving car is no longer an idea for the distant future. We are living in age where technology is constantly evolving and adapting to our human needs and wants.

This is already on our roads.

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A self-driving car can be defined into two categories: semi-autonomous and fully autonomous. There have already been self-driving car technologies developed and used in well-known companies such as BMW, Tesla, and Mercedes Benz. Certain car models already have the ability to autonomously parallel park, maintain safe following distance in steady traffic, and even apply the brakes when the sensory system detects a potential collision.

Google, Delphi, and Tesla are taking it a step further

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However there are companies such as Google, Delphi Automotive, and Tesla who are in the process of developing these developments even further, creating fully autonomous cars which deliver a passenger from point A to point B without significant human input. Google plans on taking full advantage of their Google Maps street view system and integrating it into their self-driving car technology.

So what does this mean for us?

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The main benefit for the self-driving car technology is to make roads safer and people's lives easier. In the UK, KPMG estimates that these cars will lead to 2,500 fewer deaths between 2014 and 2030. Fully automated cars are estimated to debut in the year 2020 for public use, but at a luxurious price until the technology becomes more common.

How will it affect our public transportation?

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Having self-driving cars may allow everyday commuters to become more productive during the countless hours spent in traffic. This could potentially change our public transport if this technology becomes assessable to the daily commuter. On an enterprise level, companies could utilize the technology for delivery transports, taxi services, and even have meetings on the go.

Are we paying money to work more?

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This can also speak to a larger framework of valuing time and efficiency in our society. Have we become so obsessed with work and utilizing every second of our time that we are paying more money for products so that we can do more work? You can already see corporations paying their employees for their communication devices, laptops, and other luxuries so that they can work comfortably for them any time of the day.

Food for Thought

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The self-driving car can be a significant leap forward in urban transportation, contribute to safer roads, and having a more regulated gas emissions to help the environment. However it can also represent how our work-oriented values have begun to absorb every last intimate moment we have to ourselves. We can already always be connected to work through our smart phones, now we can be doing work even in our cars. One can only imagine what other intimate parts of our lives can be invaded in the future. Could it be our time used for sleep? The fully self-driving car won't be here for another few years, but the time is approaching much faster than we may imagine. I personally enjoy the activity for driving, however the idea of a self-driving car should make us all curious of what other life changing implementations await for us in the upcoming years.